Pisac the Condor City

Saturday 3/14/09 Cuzco

Compared to the other days so far on this trip, this one was a little slower than the rest.

The day started out good. Madison was up around sixish and took a shower while I slept in. After looking back it appears that I had a headache lingering from the night before.

When Madison was done with the shower it was my turn.I forgot to bring a towel on this trip so post shower was a little interesting. I ended up drying off with another washcloth. Thankfully before the trip one of the teachers who had grown up in Latin American clued us in to the fact that washcloths aren’t a thing where we were going.

For breakfast we had eggs and passion fruit juice. At first I wasn’t sure what to make of the drink a color between orange juice and mountain dew. Now back in the states six years later I would love to have the real passion fruit juice.

Once again when it was time to go to the super mercado to meet the group, I kept forgetting things in the room. I must have made three trips back upstairs to get things. Thankfully when we got to the meeting place we weren’t the last ones.

The first place we went to today was Pisac. This is a city that is laid out in the shape of a condor. Up in the mountain sides there was the city of the dead. On the lower hills were the houses of the nobility, the priests and their Sun temple, the homes of the commoners and farmers were lower on the hills.

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The second place we visited started with a “C”, but unfortunately I didn’t write the name down. This place had been an Inca town before the Spanish came. When they did arrive, instead of destroying everything they built on top of existing structure.

I guess, what better way to lower those you defeated than by turning their buildings into the foundations of your own.

On the opposite mountain of this town there were the store houses. The odd thing about this mountain was that there were the shapes of two faces and a monkey carved into the side.

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As we were leaving it started to rain. Our guide said the storm was coming down from Machu Pich, which was where we were going the next day.

Today the bus rides were longer and there was more climbing. i was ok but some others weren’t. Feo and a heavier set girl were having problems on the way back to the buses. I just makes me all the more thankful that I am healthy and know my way around outdoors. I mean, who wears a dark colored T-shirt in the mountains… Feo.